Process of treating ores.



1 ru snares. r rrnn'r FRANKLIN R.' CARPENTER AND ARTHUR HOWE CARPENTER,01? DENVER, COLORADO; ARTHUR I-I CKVE CARPENTER, ADMINISTRATOR OF SAIDFRANKLIN R; CARPENTER, DECEASED, vAND INDIVIDUALLY ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALFOF THE WHOLE RIGHT TO KIRBY THOMAS,-OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF TREATING ORES.

ooaeaa. No Drawing. Application filed August 25, 1909,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRANKLIN R.

CAP.-

, PENTER and ARTHUR Hown Csnrnxrnn, citi zens of the United States,residing in'Denver, in the county of Denver and State of copper-nickelores of Sudbury, Ontario, as well as the matte made therefrom. Theseores in the main are iron sulfid or pyrrhotite, carrying varyingquantities of copper and nickel, seldom exceeding three per cent. ofeach. In some instances they carry large quantities of gangue, which isessentially a norite, but which sometimes is also nickeliferous. It isowing to this fact that difii culties in ore concentration areencountered and that it has become the almost universal practice tosmelt these ores for a low grade copper nickel iron matte for subsequenttreatment, which treatment is expensive, and a part of which is said tobe kept secret. It has long been known that it is unnecessary toseparate'the nickel of these ores from the accompanying iron, as it isused mainly in the manufacture of ferronickel alloys. If the copper,sulfur and gangue were removed from these ores the resultant iron oxidwould be the purple or. blue-billy ores of commerce, differing only inthe fact that they would carry nickel. This purple ore, whether deriveddirectly from Sudbury ores or from the low grade nickel iron matte, canbe nodulized and added direct to the open hearth or blast furnaceprocess forv the manufacture of nickel alloys of every variety.

We have successfully applied the Henderson-Longinaid process ofchloridization for the separation of copper from both ores and .rnattes,but the process is one of great delicacy, requiring the highest skillinboth roasting and chloridizing, owing to the fact that both' nickel andiron are likely to be chloridized and lost. In the case of iron it isnot a matter of any importance whether four or five per cent. of iron islost or not,

but a very much less percentage of nickel I loss becomes at once aserious matter.

In the ordinary Henderson Longmaid process the ore is rough roasted soas to Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Cot. 17, 1911.

Serial No. 514,552. Renewed June 27, 1911. Serial No. 635,650.

leave about once and a half or twice as much sulfur in the ore as thereis copper. In doing this some of the nickel may exist as nickel sulfidand some as nickel sulfate, and the same is true of the iron. It isextremely diflicult to break up these compounds and is averted. Afterpractically dead roasting the mass, we add raw pyrite, raw pyrrhotite orraw matte, preferably the first free from nickel, to the mass, togetherwith the necessary' salt, and then give the whole a chloridizing roast.Owing to the greater ease with which copper is chloridized, we cancontrol the process absolutely, and when lixiviated, the nickel remainsbehind with the iron, while the copper is readily leached out. Aftertreatment the nickel iron residue is smelted directly, with or withoutother iron ores or iron, for the production of ferronickel alloys,thereby saving the cost of separating the nickel by the. present costlymethods, and the complete utilization of the iron.

Having described our invention, what we nickel-iron ores and mattesderived therefrom from their copper contents by practically deadroasting the same, whereby all the sulfates and sulfids of iron andnickel and possibly of copper are broken up, and then adding to theoxidized mass raw sulfids, either in the form of raw pyrite, rawpyrrhotite or raw matte, with the necessary amount of common salt, andsubjecting the same to what is known as a chloridizing roast, wherebythe copper is chloridized and the iron and nickel left as oxids and thenleaching the chloridiied copper from the mass, leaving the iron andnickel oxids in the form of the purple ore of commerce, and the smeltingof this purple ore for the production of ferronickel or nickel-steel,substantially as described.

2. The hereindescribed method of freeing sulfid copper-nickel-iron oresfrom their copper contents by practically dead roasting the mass andthen adding common salt and a J sufiicient amount of sulfid to reactwith the salt to chloridize and render soluble the copper only, leavinginsoluble nickel and iron oxids in the form of the purple ore ofcommerce.

3. The method herein described, which consists in giving sulfidcopper-nickel-iron ores or mattes an oxidizing roast and then addingthereto the necessary amount of raw pyrite, raw pyrrhotite or raw matte,to-

gether with the necessary amount of com- .mon salt and subjecting thewhole to 2.

chloridizing roast, whereby the copper is rendered soluble in Water,while the iron and nickel oxids are not so afi'ected, then leaching orwashing from the residue the chloridized copper, leaving the remainderin the form of blue billy, or purple iron ore, carrying practically allthe original nickel and little or nocopper, and then smelting suchpurple nickelcarrying ore for the production of ferro-nickel ornickelrsteel.

A. R. MORRISON.

